The present invention relates to a photometry system for executing a photometric operation in a camera.
Conventionally, a TTL photometric operation has been employed in a camera, in which, light passes through a photographing lens of the camera and is projected on a focusing screen. By measuring the brightness of the light diverged by the focusing screen, the photometric operation is performed, i.e., the exposure value is determined. Recently, a divided photometry system has become popular, in which the focusing screen is divided into a plurality of zones, and the brightness of each zone is measured.
Also recently, cameras have been provided to select between a normal photographing aperture (full size picture mode) and a panoramic photographing aperture (panoramic picture mode). In the full size picture mode, a full size frame is exposed on the film (i.e., for a 35 mm camera system, the full size picture mode has a film frame size of 24 mm by 36 mm). In the panoramic picture mode, an area at the top and bottom of the normal frame size is shielded, and is not exposed, resulting in an exposure frame, size which is smaller than the full size frame (usually 16 mm by 36 mm for 35 mm cameras). In order to inform an operator of the camera as to which mode is selected, information related to the selected mode is projected on the focusing screen.
If information is projected adjacent to one of the divided zones, the brightness of the zone may change (increase), and thus the determined exposure value may be wrong when the divided photometry system, as described above, is employed.